Turner Street location announced for LGBT center

A location has been announced for Allentown's proposed LGBT community center in the heart of the city's gay community.

Officials have selected 1021 W. Turner St., a long-vacant former dairy and auto parts store in the Old Allentown neighborhood, to be the future site of a community building that will offer cultural and support services specifically for the city's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents.

The 7,000-square-foot building, which has been named the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in honor of Pennsylvania Diversity Network founders Liz Bradbury and Patricia Sullivan, will be purchased from the Allentown Redevelopment Authority for $1, Mayor Ed Pawlowski announced Monday. Officials said the building has been vacant for decades but remains structurally sound.

Plans call for the facility to be a safe space for the gay community that promotes cultural programming, such as LGBT author readings and lectures, and offers direct services for the Lehigh Valley's gay population.

Adrian Shanker, founder and executive director of the center, said local organizers set a $75,000 fundraising goal for the project when plans for the space were announced in June. That figure has already been exceeded, and officials are now aiming higher, he said.

Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center announcement

EMILY PAINE, THE MORNING CALL

Liz Bradbury, who will serve as senior director of programs of the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in Allentown, speaks at a news conference announcing the site of the new center.

Liz Bradbury, who will serve as senior director of programs of the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in Allentown, speaks at a news conference announcing the site of the new center. (EMILY PAINE, THE MORNING CALL)

In addition to financial donations, several local firms have donated design services for the project, including Kohn Engineering, Barry Isett and Associates, Lock Ridge Engineering and Howard Kulp Architects. Electrical and legal services have also been donated. The cost of those services would have exceeded $75,000, Shanker said.

"It takes a community to build a community center, and that's what we're doing," he said.

Design work on the center is expected to be complete by the end of the year, but organizers will then have to complete the acquisition process with the Redevelopment Authority, Shanker said. Shanker said he hopes to have the center complete in a couple of years. Construction costs are expected to total $1.5 million.

When opened, the center will be only the sixth of its kind in the state and will serve a population that has been growing in Lehigh Valley cities.

In 2010, Allentown had 405 same-sex households, a 55 percent increase since 2000, making it the state's third-largest home to gay couples behind Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Bethlehem saw a jump of 79 percent to 261 same-sex households. Easton had a smaller but still significant increase of 26 percent, to 86 same-sex households.